That is the beauty of memorization. My Sanskrit teacher, J Prabhakar Sastri, explained it to me long ago. When I was studying Sanskrit grammar with him he would always begin his classes by having us recite the sutras from memory, the sutras we were working on that day and had worked on the days previously. Once I had the whole karaka section of Panini stuck in my throat (kaNTha-stha). He made the point that if we have them in our minds and contemplate them throughout the day when we were doing other things, their meanings would become more clear to us. So after two or three hours of study, we would go off to have some tea and snacks somewhere on the campus of Andhra University. All the while we would be discussing the sutras because we were carrying them with us in our minds.
So, the challenge is what do we come to understand as we learn and contemplate these verses. The more we ponder them, the more their secrets are revealed to us. I give a simple translation, but it should be adequate for figuring out what each of the words mean. Already I have been wondering about vancha-kalpa-taru. It seems redundant: vancha means desire, wish and kalpa means desire and wish. kalpa-taru means wishing tree. vancha-kalpa-taru means wishing-wishing tree. Why both? It would be great for those who are memorizing these verses with me as we go to share their insights with us. I suspect Ed that you already have some answers to your question about why Vaisnavas should be thought of as like desire trees. Generally, the process of asking a question requires already positing an answer however vaguely, n'est ce pas?
Indeed, that seems to be the usual process. Well, I’ll lay out some ideas I’ve had, and since this is a thread about verses I’ll try to back them up with some other quotes as well:
That they are
desire-fulfilling trees I understand it as them
sharing Bhagavan’s nature, in the words of Sri Prahlad Marahaj:
चित्रं तवेहितमहोऽमितयोगमाया-
लीलाविसृष्टभुवनस्य विशारदस्य ।
सर्वात्मन: समदृशोऽविषम: स्वभावो
भक्तप्रियो यदसि कल्पतरुस्वभाव: ॥ ८ ॥
citraṁ tavehitam aho ’mita-yoga-māyā-
līlā-visṛṣṭa-bhuvanasya viśāradasya
sarvātmanaḥ samadṛśo ’viṣamaḥ svabhāvo
bhakta-priyo yad asi kalpataru-svabhāvaḥ
(BhP. 8.23.8)It is said that through constant contact with (or dedicated worship of) the trascendental, a person attains that very same nature:
मां च योऽव्यभिचारेण भक्तियोगेन सेवते ।
स गुणान्समतीत्यैतान्ब्रह्मभूयाय कल्पते ॥ २६ ॥
māṁ ca yo ’vyabhicāreṇa
bhakti-yogena sevate
sa guṇān samatītyaitān
brahma-bhūyāya kalpate
(Bg. 14. 26)एषा बुद्धिमतां बुद्धिर्मनीषा च मनीषिणाम् ।
यत् सत्यमनृतेनेह मर्त्येनाप्नोति मामृतम् ॥ २२ ॥
eṣā buddhimatāṁ buddhir
manīṣā ca manīṣiṇām
yat satyam anṛteneha
martyenāpnoti māmṛtam
(BhP 11.29.22) prabhu kahe, — “vaiṣṇava-deha ‘prākṛta’ kabhu naya
‘aprākṛta’ deha bhaktera ‘cid-ānanda-maya’
dīkṣā-kāle bhakta kare ātma-samarpaṇa
sei-kāle kṛṣṇa tāre kare ātma-sama
(CC Antya 4.191-192)That trascendental (substance) is the Holy Name:
यतस् तत्रैव च —
नाम चिन्तामणिः कृष्णश् चैतन्य-रस-विग्रहः ।
पूर्णः शुद्धो नित्य-मुक्तो’भिन्नत्वान् नाम-नामिनोः ॥
yatas tatraiva ca —
nāma cintāmaṇiḥ kṛṣṇaś caitanya-rasa-vigrahaḥ |
pūrṇaḥ śuddho nitya-mukto’bhinnatvān nāma-nāminoḥ ||
(Brs 1.2.233)I believe this is also why Prabhupad Kanupriya Goswami says in chapter III of
Association with the Great, that “
single-minded bhaktas are made of Hari, and Hari is made of them”. And why Dr. Kapoor quotes Sri Ramakrsna Das Pandit Babaji saying to Sri Gaurgovinda Das Babaji in
The Saints of Vraja:
“
Harinama is like a kalpataru. It gives to the sadhaka whatever he wants. If while doing nama-japa a sadhaka thinks of the powers of Krsna, it generates those powers in him; if he thinks of his love (prema), it instils his heart with love for Krsna. It is through the eyes of love that he enjoys the exhuberant sweetness (madhurya) of his divine lila. Without love one may realise Krsna, but not his Madhurya. Realisation of Krsna without love generates powers like omniscience which block one’s spiritual development”.
The idea that the qualities of Krsna become manifest in his bhakta is connected to the rest of the verse, since the next two adjectives are equally applied to Bhagavan elsewhere. The Kalpa-taru idea I guess comes from the Puranic literature, specially in relation to Indra's heaven, although I'm not sure if in some Upanishads the idea of a trascendental tree of sorts is also found, like the one found in Bhagavad Gita 15.1
Now, there’s an interesting conversation in relation to this
wish or
desire-fulfilling nature of Bhagavan that I think implies a lot about the merits of these special kalpa-tarus, in CC Madhya 22.23-27 Harvard Press edition:
अकाम: सर्वकामो वा मोक्षकाम उदारधी: ।
तीव्रेण भक्तियोगेन यजेत पुरुषं परम् ॥ १० ॥
akāmaḥ sarva-kāmo vā
mokṣa-kāma udāra-dhīḥ
tīvreṇa bhakti-yogena
yajeta puruṣaṁ param
(Bhp 2.3.10)anya-kāmī yadi kare kṛṣṇera bhajana
nā māgiteha kṛṣṇa tāre dena sva-caraṇa
kṛṣṇa kahe, — ‘āmā bhaje, māge viṣaya-sukha
amṛta chāḍi’ viṣa māge, — ei baḍa mūrkha
āmi — vijña, ei mūrkhe ‘viṣaya’ kene diba
sva-caraṇāmṛta diyā ‘viṣaya’ bhulāiba
सत्यं दिशत्यर्थितमर्थितो नृणां
नैवार्थदो यत्पुनरर्थिता यत: ।
स्वयं विधत्ते भजतामनिच्छता-
मिच्छापिधानं निजपादपल्लवम् ॥ २७ ॥
satyaṁ diśaty arthitam arthito nṛṇāṁ
naivārtha-do yat punar arthitā yataḥ
svayaṁ vidhatte bhajatām anicchatām
icchā-pidhānaṁ nija-pāda-pallavam
(Bhp 5.19.27)kāma lāgi’ kṛṣṇe bhaje, pāya kṛṣṇa-rase
kāma chāḍi’ ‘dāsa’ haite haya abhilāṣe
यथा हरि-भक्ति-सुधोदये (७.२८) —
स्थानाभिलाषी तपसि स्थितो’हं
त्वां प्राप्तवान् देव-मुनीन्द्र-गुह्यम् ।
काचं विचिन्वन्न् अपि दिव्य-रत्नं
स्वामिन् कृतार्थो’स्मि वरं न याचे ॥
yathā hari-bhakti-sudhodaye (7.28) —
sthānābhilāṣī tapasi sthito’haṃ
tvāṃ prāptavān deva-munīndra-guhyam |
kācaṃ vicinvann api divya-ratnaṃ
svāmin kṛtārtho’smi varaṃ na yāce ||
(Brs. 4.3.44)I thought of adding the translations, but I don’t know if you Nitai would like to translate them, I usually use a couple of different ones when available, I also think that with the references anyone here can check their favourite edition if they like. In any case, I can edit the post and add them if you and others prefer it that way.
So far I have no idea what that use of Vancha and Kalpa is all about. The only thing that comes to mind right now is that it may refer to different kinds of desires (in relation to preyas and sreyas, and the CC conversation above) but I don't think I've ever seen such a distinction, they are pretty much used interchangeable as far as I know, I'm pretty lost about that one. I have seen Bhakti-kalpa-taru though, as in CC Adi 9.9:
śrī-caitanya mālākāra pṛthivīte āni’
bhakti-kalpataru ropilā siñci’ icchā-pāni